Said Roberto Di Matteo
"But I asked the team for a good performance and 100% commitment and in the long run if you do play with that you should get good results."
The only downside for Di Matteo was losing striker Roman Bednar after five minutes with a back injury - the full extent of which has yet to be discovered.
While the win got the Baggies' promotion push moving again, it leaves Reading still deep in trouble at the foot of the table.
They have won just two matches this season and manager Brendan Rodgers has called on his team to cut out the sloppy mistakes that are costing them.
Jobi McAnuff gifted Thomas his first goal and Rodgers said: "We had good control of the game after we scored.
"But this season we have given teams encouragement through mistakes and if we are going to progress as a group we need to rectify that or we will undo a lot of our good work.
"We have been making mistakes in a lot of our games and we present goals to teams.
"We should do better even at 1-1 we were still in the game. We are a team capable of being at the top of this league but we become too vulnerable and we have to become more ruthless.
"This is a league where it is difficult to find consistency. We only hope we can find some form that lasts.
"I still have every ambition that we can climb the league but I have to be realistic as well. It is a tough league and we have to be better."